


War Tide

by CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines



Category: DC Elseworlds, DCU, DCU (Comics), Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, The Punisher (TV 2017), Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien Invasion, Alien Mythology/Religion, Alien Sniper Lara Croft, Alien Technology, Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Krypton did not embrace isolationism, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Canon Disabled Character, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Krypton, Krypton Survives, Kryptonian Biology, Kryptonian Culture & Customs, Kryptonian Language, Kryptonians, Kryptonians invaded Earth, Lesbian Characters, Mutual Pining, Romance, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing, Slow Romance, War, but in a good way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 09:17:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16405616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines/pseuds/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines
Summary: It's been two years.Two years since they arrived and destroyed our cities.Two years of hidding, of running, of screaming as millions upon millions die or are captured for things nobody dares to imagine.Two years of going from one shore of a desolate country to the other, evading their patrols and their raids; scavenging here and there for food, guns, ammo, resources and maybe just a little more time in hopes of a miracle that will never arrive.Until one day everything changes.Don't worry if you don't know the characters. Knowledge of all fandoms is not required.





	1. The World We Live In

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my NaNoWriMo Project!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam starts a project

Sam placed the camera on the tripod and once the light that indicated it was recording lit up, she cleared her throat and moved to stand in front of it quickly, going over and over in her mind how she was going to state the situation, her reporter's mind never truly having gone away, even after all that had happened, and with it the habit of picking her words carefully whenever she stood in front of a camera. She tamed the whirlwind in her mind and without an emotion in either her voice or her face, began to speak to the camera:

_"I record this in hopes that one day we will overcome this and humanity recovers enough that this message is found: Today, two years ago, Earth was invaded by Aliens. Out of nowhere their ships appeared all over the world and pulverized the militaries of the world. In a swift and brutal campaign that saw organized resistance crumble in two months, what seems to be an amalgamation of different alien species invaded the planet and occupied the most populated cities of the world with their ground forces, who overran the military efforts of the world's greatest powers with ease. Their technology surpasses by far anything humanity has ever faced: They have handguns that shoot sticks that pierce tanks like they were made of wet paper, aircraft that leaves no trace and goes undetected to everything but the naked eye just to mention a few examples of their technological superiority. The greatest horror to the organized resistance effort, the shields of their ships that absorbed the fury of the Russian and American nuclear arsenal, cannot go unmentioned; but after the destruction that came in retaliation, I doubt we’ll ever forget such a thing."_

Sam sighed and pinched her nose, not knowing what else to say. She knew she should've prepared this more and yet she'd gone and done it just because she suddenly remember this morning that it was the anniversary of their arrival. She quickly decided to just retake it from where she felt it was right.

_"They are everywhere and where they are they kill or capture and nobody is sure which is worse. The obvious thing to do is survive, to run and run people have done so far. The problem is that groups get big for it is instinctual in humans to band together, but if a group gets too big, they come like moths to a flame, called by an unknown reason and leave nothing but corpses and burning wreckage behind"_

Sam paused and decided to add, albeit hesitant

_"Corpses, burning wreckage and what I'm 100% convinced are bullets that bounced off of the plates of their armor. In this recording I hope to leave an account of how life in these dark days was, so that future generations have a reliable source to refer to when learning of this time in our history"_

Sam sighed again, knowing she had to be honest to posterity.

She'd spent her life lying: to her friends, by telling them they were her friends when she felt nothing but contempt for them; to her parents, who had managed every aspect of her life to turn her into the perfect daughter and heiress to a fortune; and most importantly to herself.

Reason why she'd cracked first chance she got and became a reckless party animal that made scandal after scandal-grabbing headline with her partying and drinking.

Reason why she was twenty-seven and been in rehab three times.

Reason why she had slept with enough people to make a list as tall as Frank and had two abortions after pill malfunctions with guys she never got the name of.

Reason why the last thing she'd told her parents before the world came to an end was that she hated them and that she wished them a fiery death.

" _And honestly-_ " Sam admitted " _Because this is the only way I can cope, really. The only thing that gives me some sense of normalcy in this hell I’ve been calling life as of late._ "

She chuckled lowly and hurtful, lamenting out loud and repeated what her father had told her without much presence of mind; too far down memory lane to notice.

" _I_   _would've been a hell of a reporter hadn't it been for the booze...and the drugs...and the-_ " Sam caught herself and growled exasperated. Her laptop died over a year ago and things had never calmed down enough for her to worry about stupid shit like her laptop and her editing tools.

" _Yeah-_ " She admitted to herself and to the camera " _This is how bad things are. I doubt we'll ever forget something like this but just to be safe: Yeah, I'm losing it and so is everyone else. It's just that everyone else wasn't as bad as me when this shit started. Allow me to introduce you_ "

Sam went up the camera, stopped recording and took it off the tripod, walking to the door without the slightest rush; already guessing what Frank would say of her idea.

The diner she’d chosen to use as a studio looked decent enough that you could easily convince yourself that the broken floor tiles and the ripped open seats were like that due to slow business. The woods around ithe diner were green and alive, as all things were in the summer; and if Sam closed her eyes and listened, she could swear she was back in that rehab center in Europe that was surrounded by forests and deer that would let you feed them and pet them.

It took little to feel that the world was at peace when it was this quiet. When the cars and the people stopped making their noises and the world was actually a place we lived in instead of just a place where we had to toil while real life happened in the internet.

A cold shiver with the force of a lightning that made the small hairs on her skin ran its path up and down Sam’s spine at the thought of why this peace existed and Sam felt awkward to say the least as her mind did its thing and reminded her how much of a fuck up she was; enjoying a peace created by the death of Frank’s family and the unknown fate of Sarah and David’s children along with so many others who are still unaccounted for.

Sam walked back to the group, her mind busy trying to find the correct wording to convince Frank that it wasn’t a stupid idea based on impulse, as well as what she’d say so that someone in the group might give her idea a try and speak their mind.

“Little Bird-” Jonah acknowledged Sam as she came up to the group and Sam stood in shock for a moment, his imposing figure still a bit intimidating to Sam “We’re leaving tonight”

She didn’t want to admit it but Jonah reminded her of one of the alien species; his stern appearance and great strength bringing Sam mental images of the ones Frank had taken to call Brutes due to their aggressiveness and seeming lack of smarts.

“Why?” Sam’s heart started to beat erratically and her mind became clouded with worry “I thought we were staying here a couple more days here”

“Yeah, we were-” Frank’s gruff voice boomed and startled Sam, who jumped in her shoes much to Frank’s amusement “Until it turned out there’s someone lurking in the woods”

“What?” Sam asked serene, though her mind started to repeat over and over ‘ _Fuck_ ’ in panic.

“Someone’s been watching us for who knows how long-” Frank started to explain and Sam made note to pay close attention. Frank was a man of few words and when he said stuff like this, Sam liked to know all she could and for that she would need to ask the right questions “David said he thought he saw a blue light shine the other night and Billy found broken branches and footprints in the mud early this morning near one of the traps we laid out.”

“Humans?” Sam asked as she hid how irked she was by the small reminder that other people had to be added to the list of dangers.

“Most likely-” Jonah responded, however his face gave away he had great doubts about that answer “If it were _them_ , we would’ve found a Grunt corpse ensnared in a trap already”

“And the footprints were human” Frank added, seemingly trying to convince Jonah for some reason.

“If it was a person or a group of them, they would’ve showed up already. We’ve been here what? A week?” Jonah spoke his mind amicably yet insistent “That’s more than enough time to scout us out. We both know whoever left them wanted us to find the footprints and what’s more important: I’ve never seen boots like those and neither have you, Frank.”

“Yeah, well-” Frank nodded as he took in Jonah’s point “More the reason to leave if you ask me. Sam-” Frank looked at her with that stern, you-better-listen-to-me gaze he had that he most likely had used with his children “Get some shut eye, we leave at dusk”

Sam sighed and nodded as she gripped the camera in her hand tighter, deciding that her useless little project could wait until they were out of this particular danger. Appreciating her lucky stars, she gave a quick thanks to whoever was listening for Frank having the presence of mind to tell people why they were doing this so suddenly.

Frank and his buddies were good people, Sam knew that, but still they could be odd at times and the group sometimes just did things without really knowing why other than ‘Frank said it’. If they wanted to survive, they needed a plan and they needed to know what was going on; walking in the figurative dark could get them killed.

‘ _Walking in the actual dark however_ -’ Sam thought to herself as a smile appeared on her face ‘ _is a very good way to slip past through danger_ ’


	2. Group Discussion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and her group talk about their situation

Sam felt being shook by someone, she felt the warmth and roughness of big hands against her body moving her gently but firmly; but by no means did she felt like waking-up. Her eyelids were as heavy as lead and even on the hard cold ground, she felt like she could sleep forever; her body barely reacted to her commands to stir and stretch and all she could seem to have control over was her voice and even that was a barely held control, for all she could summon was a rough groan that hurt her and made her wince in pain.

“Little Bird-” Jonah’s voice came up in her mind all of the sudden, as if it had been unmuted “Sun’s almost gone. Time to go”

Sam sat up and felt like she had been drinking: Her head hurt and her face felt stiff and everything around her had a weird look to it, even in the dim light of the room it all looked strange and ending of the world or not it still took her a minute to get her full bearings.

“Sam-” Frank’s rough, low bass voice boomed “You up yet?”

“Yeah-” Sam spoke through a yawn “Just let me pack up my stuff and I’ll be ready to go. Jessica spotted anything on her walk?”

“Uh-” Frank voicing his doubt was a first warning something was up “The usual but worse”

“Worse?” Sam knew that the reason they were leaving with a half-moon was the inevitable problem of men being wolves of men, but that it had somehow gotten worse did not bode well with her.

“How’s your belief in the Boogeyman?” Trish’s voice came from behind Sam, who did not have the will to turn and face her fellow survivor yet.

“Boogeyman? What? They’re leaving stick figures around the woods?” Sam quipped half-jokingly, albeit she’d be willing to accept that over someone using people’s body parts to mark their territory; a thing they were all sadly aware was a reality.

“Jess seemed freaked out-” Trish walked up and around Sam until she was standing next to her “She may or may not have seen Lieberman’s blue light”

Trish offered Sam a hand, which she took gladly and allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet. Sam yawned and stretched, trying to shake off what sleep she still had in her body.

“Think they’ll try anything tonight?” Sam asked nonchalantly as she took in her surroundings and briefly admired the last dying light of the day leaving its orange signature in the horizon before taking in everyone's faces. She did not liked that for the first time since she’d joined them, nobody seemed certain of anything.

“They would’ve already.” Jessica joined them, clearly ready to deal damage with her rifle “I mean, how much scouting could we possibly need? Sure, Russo and his wife have set up booby-traps and Frank here could beat anyone’s head off of their shoulders but-”

Sam did not liked that Jessica didn’t know what to say next “But?”

“We all know that gun fights are bad, right?” Jessica spoke her mind rapidly, glancing around afraid that what she’d say next would summon the aliens “ _They_  come in with their Phantoms or send a Banshee to check out the ruckus and before you know it Brutes and Grunts are shooting up the place”

“Yeah-” Jonah nodded “Whenever it’s other people they try something with bows and arrows or sneaking in while we sleep. Nothing that would give away the position”

Jonah looked at Frank sternly, which started what would’ve seemed like a staring contest but Sam had learned see as the unspoken debate those two always held whenever it came to these kinds of decisions.

Jonah had always been one for trying to find a good spot and settle down, taking steps to make sure they’d be able to stand a chance in case  _they_  came and always protested when they left a perfectly good spot that was defensible, had access to resources and was relatively unpatrolled. It had only been because of the multiple close encounters with the invaders and with other groups of survivors that Jonah hadn’t tried harder to push his idea of staying in one place for good.

Frank’s idea of surviving was the exact opposite of Jonah’s and so far had been only willing to accept longer and longer stays wherever they decided to settle down for a bit because Russo and his wife had talked some sense into him about the insane thing that was counting on what wildlife was left to feed themselves on when they instead could live off of what food they could find in the abandoned storages of the towns and small cities they happened to be nearby. That food was far easier to get due to it being literally just waiting for them but it seemed Frank wanted to have it the hard way to keep everyone on their toes.

It helped that Frank and Billy not only shared the trauma of seeing the army they had proudly served in collapse in what seemed over night but also the bond two men who had seen deployment overseas together multiple times could share.

“This person or persons are giving all the signals they’re not to be fucked with-” Jessica butted in on the silent argument Frank and Jonah were having “And we’re all armed. The only way they could take us was a shootout, which nobody on their right minds would risk”

“After all this time, I feel an argument could be made about how we don’t know if these people are on their right minds” Sam answered almost immediately, attempting to put her two cents in the debate of whether or not to leave or figure this out. If they could convince Frank to stay where they were, it’d be a win and everyone needed as many of those as they could get.

“Fuck, you’re right-” Jess gently ran her hand over her snow-white brow in that habit of hers that Sam had come to learn was the first sign of worry in Jess’ mind. Trish went up and stood near her wife to soothe her as much as she could given they were in public.

“Hey-” Sam intervened quickly, coming to a realization “This is becoming a group decision and if it is one, then the others should have a say”

“No, it is not-” Frank raised his voice and the startled silence that fell upon them was as if Michigan had been gotten destroyed once again by _their_ ships “We’re leaving. They’re fucking with us precisely to get us like this. It ain’t happening, we’re leaving as soon as Dinah, David and Sarah are done with their prayers and that’s it”

Trish and Jessica gave Frank an ‘Are you serious’ look and Frank responded in a short breath “We know the woods and we got Sam’s camera. We’ll handle them just like we handled those assholes in Maryland”

“Yeah, ‘cause that worked out fine for Curt and Henderson” Jonah spoke up abruptly and Jess pointed her rifle at Frank before he had the chance to process what Jonah had used as a response to Frank’s reasoning.

“Come on, Frank” Jess spoke neutrally, aiming down right between his eyes as Frank’s nose flared and the man seemed to grow two feet taller than he already was “Take it easy. We’re on edge here”

Even Sam, who had a long history of doing stupid shit, knew that was something not to bring up and felt her body starting to drift by itself towards Jess for protection. If Frank snapped with this, she wanted to be near the person that was going to pull them out of that particular hell.

Frank followed Sam with his eyes and his fists balled up and the veins in his arms became noticeable and after staring down at Jessica and seeing she was quite comfortable behind the right end of her rifle, he simply muttered a ‘Fuck’ under his breath and walked away from where he was standing while Jessica followed him with her sights and the gun still clearly aiming at his head; everyone standing as still as the trees that surrounded them.

“Sam, get your fucking camera ready” Frank called out without looking over his shoulder as he made his way out, breaking the sepulchral silence and Jessica audibly let go of the breath she was holding on to and lowered her weapon “We’re leaving right fucking now”

Frank went out of sight and everyone sighed relieved; Trish stopped silence from taking over once again with a simple admonishment that voiced everyone’s minds.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Trish asked Jonah, stunned the man had said such a thing “You just don’t say something like that. You’re lucky Jess had her gun on her to help Frank think things through”

“We all know I’m right-” Jonah defended himself and Sam hated to be that person but she had to say it.

“Dude, one thing is to be right and another one is to do the right thing-” She tried to deliver that line as neutral as she could, yet she knew she failed to look less scared than the others “Frank does the right thing. That’s how we’ve gotten this far and we all know it”

“I-“ Jonah’s face twisted and Sam knew the next words out of his mouth before he spoke them. Jonah kept his heart in his sleeve, even with all the shit that had happened, which had endeared him quickly to all of them.

“I know” He conceded, disgusted none the less “But still, this is a trap”

“Dude, I’ve seen my fair share of traps and let me tell you this is different-” Jessica talked assertively and quite sure of herself “This shit is different”

“Ok, what is it, then?” Jonah asked Jessica, his entire body speaking of his incredulousness just as much as the inflexion of his voice.

“It’s like we’re being studied-” Jessica mulled over her words slightly and her eyes wandered over the room, as if she not sure what words to choose “But, not like malicious crap or something like that. More like when you give someone you checked out a once over to figure out how to break the ice.”

“Well, I can definitely say that you’re an expert on that-” Trish retorted gently and the slight chuckle that came out of Sam broke the tension of this whole situation a bit “But Frank’s got a good gut feeling and Jess, you were three shades paler when you came back. Whatever’s out there is surely not something we want buying us a drink, much less risk to meet because we chose to stay”

“Shouldn’t we try?” Jonah said, a bit diminished but still convinced that at least he should try to convince the others “I mean, here we’ve got plenty of food at a two-hour walk and we haven’t seen anyone around. Human or otherwise.”

“Jonah-” Sam knew comfort zones too well and knew that against the odds they were up against, staying in one was a death sentence “We both know that’s just temporal. Sooner or later something’s gonna happen and we’re gonna regret it. Let’s remember part of what happened in Maryland was because we tried to overstay our welcome”

Jonah was exasperated but he begrudgingly admitted Sam was right and after twisting his face in an attempt to come up with something to defend his position but coming up empty, he sighed and started to pick up Sam’s stuff that was still spread around.

“Well, I guess that’s it-” Jess had the last word, as usual “Gonna help the Liebermans get ready. Sam, join us when you’re ready to rock”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story! Leave a comment, they're loved!


End file.
